Shades Of A Shadow Clone PSP Puzzler

From Software is working on games other than Ninja Blade. Onore no Shinzuru Michi wo Yuke still has ninjas, but the way Shippumaru does things is differently from most ninjas. He doesn’t rely on stealth or strength. He uses shadows to solve problems.

By creating shadows Shippumaru can do multiple tasks at one point in time. As seen in the gameplay video he needs to hit a switch to make a staircase appear. However, if he moves from the switch the staircase vanishes. The solution to the puzzle is to make a shadow hit the switch while the other Shippumaru moves up the staircase. The number of ninja faces on the top right lets you know how many shadows you can make.

In addition to a novel concept Onore no Shinzuru Michi wo Yuke has a unique visual style that screams Ukiyo-e. Japan gets the game sometime in the spring and at this time no international release has been announced. The puzzles appear to be intuitive so importers maybe able to wrestle with Onore no Shinzuru Michi wo Yuke even if a publisher fails to pick it up.

While it’s definitely a cursor10 clone, it’s nice to see someone add visual style and presentation to a concept that is excellent and relatively unacknowledged. I mean, balance this against the avalanche of desktop tower defense clones.